Monday, February 22, 2016

Remembrance by Meg Cabot

It's been sixteen years since Cabot debuted the Mediator series (as Jenny Carroll) - the books about Susannah Simon and her ghostly abilities. We met her when she moved to California in Shadowland and followed her through high school and all that entails (with ghosts) until 2005's Twilight. And now she's back! And all grown up! And getting married! To Jesse!

Note: You don't have to have read any of the previous books to enjoy Remembrance.

Susannah has made it safely into adulthood and is working on a degree that will (hopefully) earn her a paying job as a therapist. But while she finishes classes she's taken a temp position at her old high school alongside Father Dominic (because having friends in high places helps with the whole job thing these days). And sure, she'd love a paycheck but the experience will look oh, so good on a resume one day. But she's worried the experience may not be worth it when she comes into contact with the particularly malicious and deceptively cute Lucia, a young NCDP (Non-Compliant-Deceased-Person) hell bent on "protecting" a student at Mission Academy. Lucia is none too pleased when she begins to view Susannah as a threat to the student and makes it her mission to handle the situation as violently as possible. It'll take all of Susannah's Mediator and budding therapy skills if she's to have any hope of calming this ghostly threat and helping her cross to the other side before Jesse handles it his own way. As if that weren't enough, Paul Slater has popped up again. His informative (harassing) email warning her of the impending demolition of her old house comes with a threat to Jesse that he claims is straight from the Book of the Dead. And while Susannah knows she can't ever really trust anything Paul has to say, especially since he's using this to blackmail her into seeing him again, the possibility of even a kernel of truth here is enough for her to risk everything to save the man she loves.

Again you do not have to have read any of the previous books to thoroughly enjoy Remembrance. Trust me, my memory is so shot that I recall very little of the early books at this stage. Fans of the series, however, will be particularly pleased to see the return of these characters. All of Cabot's signature wit and charm are present and Susannah is as stubborn and sarcastic as ever.

This and a new e short are (at least so far) the only planned adult installations in the series. Rumor has it (I have no idea how long this rumor has been floating around) that the Mediator series is in talks to become a tv show, something I'd most definitely welcome. Given this latest, though, (and my age) I think I might actually like to see the adult Susannah as a tv show instead.

If, by chance, you missed out on this fabulous series when it was first released and are coming to it now with Remembrance, I know you'll want to go back and start from the beginning (they're totally bingeworthy reading!):

ShadowlandNinth KeyReunionDarkest HourHauntedTwilightProposal: A Mediator NovellaRemembrance
To see more stops on the tour be sure to check out the official TLC tour page here.

For more on Meg Cabot and her work you can visit her website here. You can also check out her blog, like her on Facebook, and follow her on Twitter.

2 comments:

I read at least the first 4 of these many years ago. Loved them. I decided to try listening to them on audio before I read Remembrance. I've listened to the first 2. I love these. No, they are not deep, but they are funny and the cultural references are great. I'm looking forward to hearing about 'the rest of the story'. So glad that Meg Cabot decided to give us another peek into Suze and Jesse's lives. :-)